Murray breezes through as Wimbledon cools off

Former champion Andy Murray breezed into the Wimbledon third round on Thursday as the women's top 10 lost its fourth seeded player of the week.

Third seed Murray, the 2013 champion, brushed aside Robin Haase, the world number 78 from the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 in just 87 minutes.

The 28-year-old fired 25 winners past Haase and goes on to face either experienced Italian Andreas Seppi or highly-regarded 18-year-old Croatian Borna Coric.

"I started the match off very well. I started quickly and Robin was a little bit slower at the beginning and then he started to come back in it, he played better tennis," said Murray after his fourth win in five matches against his fellow 28-year-old.

"That was the sort of match I was expecting at the end of the second and the third set where he was making it tough.

"We were playing some longer rallies. He has good variety in his game so there were some fun points."

Later Thursday, seven-time champion Roger Federer and two-time winner Rafael Nadal will attempt to follow Murray into the last 32.

However, the women's draw opened up even further when Russian eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova, a quarter-finalist in 2014, went down 6-2, 7-5 to unseeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.

Before 2015, the world number 65 Rybarikova had never won a match at Wimbledon in seven years of trying.

Makarova joined third seed Simona Halep, seventh seed Ana Ivanovic and Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded nine, in failing to get beyond the second round.

Rybarikova goes on to face Belarus qualifier Olga Govortsova who put out French 25th seed Alize Cornet 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-1.

Cornet had knocked Serena Williams out of Wimbledon last year.

- Welcome relief -

Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki made it through to the third round with a 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) win over Denisa Allertova, the world number 83 from the Czech Republic.

Wozniacki, who has never got beyond the last 16 at Wimbledon, next takes on Italian 31st seed Camila Giorgi.

Also going into the third round was German 18th seed Sabine Lisicki, the 2013 runner-up, who fought back to defeat Christina McHale of the United States 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Lisicki next meets French Open semi-finalist Timea Bacsinszky, the 15th seeded Swiss.

Federer faces America's world number 36 Sam Querrey who has lost both his previous matches against the second-seeded 17-time Grand Slam title winner, failing to win a set.

The only time Federer has lost before the third round at a Grand Slam in his last 48 major appearances was at 2013 Wimbledon, when he was defeated by Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round.

Nadal, the two time winner and seeded 10 this year, takes on German qualifier Dustin Brown.

Brown, the dread-locked world 102, defeated the Spaniard on grass in Halle last year in what was the pair's only previous meeting.

Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych is also in action on Thursday when he faces French wild card Nicolas Mahut.

Reigning women's champion Petra Kvitova, the second seed, meets Japan's Kurumi Nara.

Thursday's action started late due to rain which came as a welcome relief to fans and players who had sweltered in record temperatures of over 35 degrees on Wednesday.
Source: AFP